Link building has always felt like SEO’s worst-kept secret. Everyone in the industry knows how powerful backlinks are, yet there’s this strange cloud of caution that hangs over discussing it too openly.
I still remember getting my first proper introduction to digital marketing at a local golf club. My boss Peter, the general manager, gave me a varied role covering everything from email marketing to printed leaflets. But I reckon about 30% of my time was spent on what I’d now call “link prospecting” – basically hunting down any website that listed golf clubs and reaching out to get our club featured.
It was simple but effective. Over a couple of months, we saw genuine ranking improvements for terms like “golf club near me” and “golf club membership” – searches that drove real revenue through £1,300-£2,000 individual memberships.
Fast forward to working with major brands like Disney Store, and the core principles hadn’t changed, though the approach certainly had. With big brands, the stakes are higher. When you’re managing established e-commerce accounts driving substantial revenue through organic search, there’s zero tolerance for risky tactics that could trigger penalties.
The truth is, despite all the algorithm changes and the rise of AI-powered search, backlinks remain fundamental to search engine optimisation. The data consistently shows that when you compare top-ranking URLs for important keywords across various business sectors, the number of referring domains and backlinks is invariably higher for those in the top positions versus those languishing beyond page one.
But here’s where it gets tricky. Open your LinkedIn messages or check your work email, and you’ll likely find a steady stream of offers from people selling link building services. It’s become something of a running joke in SEO circles – the sheer volume of solicitations from around the world offering “guaranteed” backlinks.
This flood of offers speaks volumes about the link building industry as a whole. It highlights both how important backlinks are and how many dubious shortcuts exist. The reality is that there are really two paths for link building: the ethical route that builds sustainable authority, and the shortcut that risks everything.
In this guide, I’ll share what I’ve learned from years of implementing ethical link building strategies across diverse UK businesses. We’ll explore why links matter, what makes them valuable, and how to build them without putting your website at risk.
I remember trying to explain backlinks to the golf club committee members years ago, and one of them asked, “So, it’s just other websites mentioning us?”
Not quite, I explained. Backlinks are when other websites actually create clickable links pointing to your site. It’s like the difference between someone mentioning your restaurant at a dinner party versus actually writing down your address and handing it to interested guests.
When I started in this industry, Google’s PageRank was the big thing everyone talked about. The concept was pretty revolutionary at the time – websites with more quality links were considered more important. These days, while Google’s algorithm is vastly more complex, this fundamental idea still holds true.
I’ve always found the simplest way to explain backlinks is to compare them to word-of-mouth recommendations in the physical world. Think about it – if you’re looking for a new accountant and three respected business contacts all suggest the same firm, you’re likely to trust that recommendation. Search engines operate on a similar principle, seeing links as votes of confidence.
About once a year, I see some article pop up claiming “SEO is dead!” or “backlinks don’t matter anymore!” I’ve been seeing these headlines for over a decade now, and yet the evidence keeps pointing in the opposite direction.
From my experience managing SEO for businesses ranging from local shops to major brands, links remain crucial for several reasons:
Rankings still depend on them. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve compared top-ranking sites against struggling competitors and found the same pattern – stronger backlink profiles correlate with better positions. This isn’t coincidence; it’s consistent across nearly every industry I’ve worked in.
They’re a source of valuable traffic. Back when I was building links for that golf club, we got a feature on a popular tourism website for the area. Not only did our search rankings improve, but we started getting direct bookings from people planning trips who clicked through from that site. That single link probably generated thousands in revenue.
They build proper credibility. I worked with a financial advisory firm that struggled to rank well despite solid content. After securing mentions and links from respected financial publications, not only did their rankings improve, but their conversion rate from organic traffic increased too. Visitors who arrived after seeing them referenced on trusted sites were simply more ready to engage.
They open doors to relationships. The links themselves are valuable, but the relationships you build while earning them can be even more so. Through our golf club outreach, we ended up creating partnerships with local hotels, tour operators, and even corporate event planners – all stemming from initial conversations about getting a link.
Based on everything I’ve seen working with websites across different industries, search engines seem to use links in two main ways:
They follow them to find your content in the first place. One client had an amazing resource section that wasn’t getting any traffic. Turned out, almost nothing on the wider web linked to it, so search engines weren’t giving it much attention. After getting just a handful of quality links pointing to it, traffic and rankings jumped significantly.
They use them to work out what’s trustworthy. I’ve managed recovery for sites hit by Google updates, and the pattern is clear – those with natural, relevant link profiles from genuine industry websites recover much faster than those with artificial or low-quality link patterns.
What’s really interesting is how the value of links has evolved. Back when I started, people obsessed over sheer numbers. Now, I’d rather have five links from respected industry publications than 500 from random, unrelated websites. Quality, relevance and naturalness trump quantity every single time – something I’ve seen proven repeatedly in client results.
In the early days of SEO, link volume was often the main focus. Today, that approach will get you nowhere (or worse, penalised). Let’s break down what actually makes a backlink valuable:
Relevance is arguably the most critical element of a quality backlink. A link from a website in your industry or niche carries far more weight than a random link from an unrelated site.
This relevance works on multiple levels:
Site Relevance: A finance website linking to an accounting firm makes sense. A cooking website linking to an accounting firm feels random and less valuable.
Page Relevance: Even on a relevant site, the specific page matters. A link from an article about tax planning to a tax advisory service is contextually stronger than a link from an article about office furniture.
Contextual Relevance: The link should make sense within the content. If it feels forced or out of place, both users and search engines will value it less.
When I worked on outreach for clients, I always prioritised finding sites that had a clear topical connection to their business. The conversion rate for outreach was higher, and the SEO impact of the resulting links was consistently stronger.
The authority of the linking website significantly impacts the value of a backlink. Think of it as a recommendation – a reference from a respected industry leader carries more weight than one from someone nobody knows.
While Google doesn’t publish authority scores, the SEO industry uses various metrics as proxies:
Domain Authority (DA) from Moz Domain Rating (DR) from Ahrefs Authority Score (AS) from Semrush
These aren’t perfect, but they provide useful benchmarks. That said, I’ve seen tremendous value from links on smaller, highly-relevant sites that might not have impressive authority scores but are genuinely trusted within a specific niche.
The rise of E-E-A-T principles has made this even more important. Google increasingly wants to reward content and websites that demonstrate genuine expertise and trustworthiness. Links from established, credible sources directly support these signals.
Anchor text – the clickable words containing the link – provides context about the linked page. While relevant anchor text is beneficial, there’s a delicate balance to strike.
In the past, SEOs would aggressively use exact-match keywords as anchor text (e.g., “best accountant in London” linking to an accounting firm). Today, this approach raises red flags if overused.
A natural, healthy backlink profile includes varied anchor text:
This variation looks natural because it mimics how people genuinely link on the web.
Where a link appears on a page affects its value. Links within the main content area generally carry more weight than those in footers, sidebars, or comment sections.
Google’s “reasonable surfer” patent suggests they consider how likely a link is to be clicked when determining its value. Links prominently placed in relevant content are both more valuable to users and more likely to pass authority.
HTML link attributes give search engines instructions about how to treat links:
Follow links (the default) pass authority and are the traditional goal of link building.
Nofollow links (rel=”nofollow”) historically told search engines not to pass authority, though Google now treats this as a “hint” rather than a directive.
Sponsored links (rel=”sponsored”) should be used for paid placements.
UGC links (rel=”ugc”) are for user-generated content like comments.
While follow links generally provide the most SEO value, a natural link profile will include a mix of these attributes. In fact, an unnatural concentration of only follow links can look suspicious.
In my years managing SEO across various sectors, I’ve found there are essentially two main approaches to ethical link building: traditional outreach and digital PR. Both have their place, and the best strategy often combines elements of both.
The most sustainable link building strategy starts with creating content so valuable that people naturally want to reference it. This isn’t just about writing “good content” – it’s about creating specific types of assets designed to attract links:
Original Research and Data: Publishing unique surveys, market analyses, or data visualisations provides value that others can’t easily replicate. When I’ve worked with clients to create original research reports, they consistently generate the highest-quality backlinks with the least outreach effort.
Comprehensive Guides: Definitive resources that thoroughly cover important topics become reference points in your industry. These don’t need to be groundbreaking, just more complete, current, and useful than what’s already available.
Tools and Calculators: Interactive resources that help users solve problems or answer questions can be link magnets. I’ve seen simple calculators or decision-making tools generate hundreds of quality backlinks over time.
Visual Assets: Infographics, diagrams, and charts that explain complex concepts simply can earn links from people who want to enhance their own content with your visuals.
Creating these assets requires investment, but they continue generating links and traffic long after the initial promotion, making them extremely cost-effective in the long run.
While exceptional content can attract links organically, most successful link building campaigns require proactive outreach. Here’s how to do it effectively and ethically:
Finding the Right Prospects
The quality of your prospects directly impacts your success rate. Focus on finding sites that:
Tools like Ahrefs, Semrush, or Moz can help identify sites linking to competitors or covering relevant topics.
Personalised, Value-Focused Communication
Generic outreach templates rarely work. Effective outreach:
During my time managing outreach campaigns, I’ve seen response rates vary dramatically based on personalisation. Taking the time to genuinely understand each prospect’s content and audience can improve response rates by 3-5x compared to generic approaches.
Let’s explore some specific, ethical tactics that work well in the UK market:
Guest Blogging (When Done Right)
Guest blogging remains valuable when approached as a way to share expertise rather than just acquire links. The key is focusing on quality over quantity:
I’ve found that one guest post on a respected industry site typically delivers more value than dozens on low-quality “guest post farms.”
Resource Page Link Building
Many websites maintain resource pages – curated lists of helpful links. Finding relevant resource pages and suggesting your content for inclusion can be highly effective:
This approach works particularly well for educational content, tools, and comprehensive guides.
Digital PR: The Link Building Powerhouse
Digital PR has become one of the most powerful approaches to ethical link building. Unlike traditional outreach, it focuses on creating newsworthy content specifically designed to attract media attention:
The process typically involves:
What makes digital PR so effective is the authority of the links it generates. A single mention from a national news site or major industry publication can carry more weight than dozens of links from smaller blogs.
Link Reclamation: The Low-Hanging Fruit
Link reclamation involves finding existing mentions of your brand that don’t include a link, then requesting that the mention be linked. This is one of the highest-conversion link building tactics because:
Tools like Google Alerts, Mention, or Semrush’s Brand Monitoring can help identify unlinked mentions.
Strategic Partnerships & Local Connections
For UK businesses, especially those serving specific geographical areas, local partnerships can be invaluable for link building:
When I worked with that golf club I mentioned earlier, we built several valuable links through local tourism websites, sports organisations, and community event sponsorships. These not only helped with SEO but drove direct bookings from people planning visits to the area.
Local Citation Building for UK Service Businesses
If you operate a local business, consistent citations (mentions of your business name, address, and phone number) are crucial. Key UK directories include:
Ensuring your information is accurate and consistent across these platforms builds both links and local search relevance.
While focusing on acquiring external links, don’t overlook the value of strategic internal linking. Connecting pages within your own site:
Some of the most dramatic ranking improvements I’ve seen came from simply restructuring internal linking to better distribute existing authority to important pages.
The SEO industry has a long, colourful history of link building tactics that worked briefly before leading to penalties. Understanding what to avoid is just as important as knowing what to pursue.
Google explicitly warns against “link schemes” designed to manipulate PageRank. These include:
Buying or Selling Links
Paying directly for links that pass authority (without the rel=”sponsored” attribute) is a clear violation of Google’s guidelines. This is different from legitimate sponsorships or advertising that use appropriate link attributes.
The solicitations flooding your inbox offering “guaranteed DA50+ links” usually fall into this category. They might work temporarily, but the risk far outweighs the benefit.
Private Blog Networks (PBNs)
These are networks of websites created solely to link to a main “money site.” They typically use expired domains with existing authority and minimal content. Google actively targets PBNs, and penalties can be severe.
Excessive Link Exchanges
While some natural reciprocal linking is normal, schemes where sites agree to link to each other primarily for SEO purposes violate guidelines. “You link to me, I’ll link to you” arrangements at scale are particularly risky.
Low-Quality Directory Submissions
Submitting your site to hundreds of general web directories does more harm than good. Focus only on relevant, curated directories with editorial standards.
Comment Spam and Forum Links
Posting promotional comments with linked signatures across blogs and forums is not only ineffective but can trigger spam filters.
The penalties for violating link guidelines can be devastating:
Algorithmic Penalties: Automated filters like the historical Penguin update can dramatically reduce visibility across many keywords.
Manual Actions: Google’s human reviewers can issue manual penalties, notified through Google Search Console.
Recovery Challenges: Addressing link-based penalties requires removing or disavowing problematic links and submitting reconsideration requests – a process that can take months with no guarantee of full recovery.
I’ve worked with several businesses who came to me after receiving link-based penalties. The resource investment required for recovery was invariably greater than what proper link building would have cost in the first place. More importantly, the lost revenue during the penalty period was often substantial.
How do you know if your link building efforts are working? Looking solely at the number of links acquired provides an incomplete picture. A meaningful assessment requires multiple metrics:
Referring Domain Growth: Track the increase in unique websites linking to yours, with particular attention to relevant, authoritative domains.
Organic Ranking Improvements: Monitor rankings for target keywords, especially those associated with pages receiving new links.
Organic Traffic Increase: Use Google Analytics to track changes in organic search traffic, particularly to pages targeted by link building.
Referral Traffic: Measure direct traffic from your backlinks – a good link should drive visitors as well as pass authority.
Conversions from Referral Traffic: Track whether traffic from backlinks completes desired actions on your site.
I typically create custom dashboards that combine these metrics to provide a holistic view of link building impact. This approach helps demonstrate ROI and refine strategy based on what’s actually delivering results.
Link building is a long-term investment. Setting appropriate expectations is crucial:
Discovery and Indexing: It takes time for search engines to discover and process new links.
Competitive Factors: In highly competitive niches, seeing movement might take longer as you’re competing against established sites with strong link profiles.
Compounding Benefits: Link building results often follow a compounding pattern, with modest initial gains followed by accelerating improvements as your authority grows.
In my experience, businesses should commit to at least six months of consistent link building before expecting significant results, though initial improvements may be visible earlier.
Link building doesn’t exist in isolation. To be effective, it must be integrated with other SEO elements and adapted to the evolving search landscape.
Google’s emphasis on Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness (E-E-A-T) has significant implications for link building. Quality backlinks directly support the ‘A’ (Authoritativeness) and ‘T’ (Trustworthiness) components.
When reputable sites in your industry link to your content, it signals to search engines that knowledgeable sources trust your information. This external validation becomes increasingly important as Google works to combat misinformation and promote reliable sources.
This connection between links and E-E-A-T means that focusing on acquiring authoritative, relevant links aligns perfectly with Google’s quality guidelines.
The increasing prevalence of AI-generated summaries in search results (like Google’s AI Overviews, formerly SGE) is changing how users interact with search results. While users might see fewer traditional blue links, the importance of authoritative sources remains crucial.
These AI systems need reliable, trustworthy sources to generate accurate summaries. Websites with strong, relevant backlink profiles are more likely to be considered authoritative sources for these AI-generated answers.
Far from making links irrelevant, the rise of AI in search actually reinforces the importance of building genuine authority through high-quality backlinks.
Link building works best when integrated with other SEO elements:
Content Strategy: Create content specifically designed to earn links and rank well.
Technical SEO: Ensure your site is technically sound so link authority can be properly distributed and indexed.
On-Page Optimisation: Pages receiving links should be well-optimised for relevant keywords to maximise ranking impact.
User Experience: Links drive visitors as well as authority – make sure your site delivers a positive experience to capitalise on this traffic.
I’ve found that the most successful SEO campaigns coordinate these elements, using content strategy to guide link building efforts, and technical SEO to ensure link equity is properly utilised.
Strategic, ethical link building is time-intensive and requires considerable expertise. For many UK businesses, especially SMEs, developing this capability in-house may not be practical.
If you’re considering working with an agency or consultant for link building, evaluate potential partners carefully:
Transparency: They should be willing to share their specific tactics and examples of links they’ve acquired.
Quality Focus: Be wary of promises based on quantity rather than quality. Guarantees of specific numbers of links per month can be a red flag.
Ethics: They should emphasise white-hat techniques and be able to explain how they comply with search engine guidelines.
Process: Ask about their prospecting methods, quality control, and outreach approach.
Reporting: They should provide clear reporting that goes beyond link counts to show actual impact on rankings and traffic.
In my experience, the right partner can deliver tremendous value, while the wrong one can put your site at risk. Take time to verify their approach and results before committing.
After years in this industry, watching countless algorithm updates and SEO trends come and go, I’m still convinced that proper link building is worth every ounce of effort it requires.
I started my career manually hunting down golf directories and sending individual emails. These days, the tactics have evolved, but the core principle hasn’t changed – earning genuine recommendations from relevant websites still works remarkably well.
The thing I’ve noticed most across hundreds of SEO campaigns is this: shortcuts eventually catch up with you. I’ve inherited too many websites damaged by quick-fix link schemes, and the recovery process is painful. Meanwhile, the brands that invested in creating valuable content and building real relationships consistently outperform in the long term.
What’s really worked for my clients over the years boils down to a few fundamentals:
When I look at the clients who’ve achieved the most dramatic growth, they’re invariably the ones who understood that link building isn’t just a technical SEO task – it’s a genuine business development activity that builds real authority and relationships.
Even with all the AI developments and constant evolution of search, I’m confident that thoughtful, ethical link building will continue to be valuable. After all, the core idea is timeless – genuine recommendations from trusted sources matter, whether that’s in search algorithms or human decision-making.
If you’re looking for a partner who understands how to build links the right way – creating genuinely valuable connections that drive both rankings and business growth – let’s talk about how we can help.
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